Don Quixote

Country: Spain

Manufactory:  Lladro

Date of establishment: 1970

Sculptor: Salvador Furio

Size (cm): 40*48

Porcelain Story

This is the most recognizable porcelain composition dedicated to Don Quixote. I first saw it live while traveling on the Portuguese island of Madeira, which is located almost a thousand kilometers from the European coast of Portugal. I'll tell you honestly, this amazingly beautiful island in the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps, is one of the few places where it is easy to forget about the porcelain hobby, just stepping on the gangway of the airport of Funchal, which is the administrative capital of the island.

By the way, a few years ago, this airport was named after the famous Portuguese footballer, multiple winner of the Golden Ball, the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo. The leader of the national team of Portugal and Real Madrid was born in Madeira and this fact alone made it famous all over the world. In addition, as you know, Ronaldo owns another unofficial, but, of course, absolutely outstanding result - in terms of the number of subscribers on the Internet, he bypassed the most popular stars of show business, the film industry and sports by millions.

At the time of our trip to Madeira, Cristiano Ronaldo was not yet as famous as he is today. But the completely unearthly beauty of the island lost in the ocean did not suffer from this at all. The mild climate, fresh air, clean water, delicious European food and amazingly bright exotic plants, in which the island is almost buried, have always attracted the interest of celebrities (and not only celebrities) in Madeira. It is known that British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, who was very exacting in terms of amenities, for many years in a row sought for himself the opportunity to relax on this island in the same hotel. In the same - rather modest by today's standards - hotel, very cozy and quiet, with small terraces, with an extraordinary view of the calm ocean in these places, your humble servant was also lucky enough to stay.

Of course, I did not really want to digress from all these exotic beauties in search of a small shop selling old European porcelain. Probably, thousands of tourists from all over the world who come to Madeira at the beginning of the Christmas holidays think the same way, knowing that at this time it will always be warm here, but not hot, fun, but not very noisy, and beautiful, but not very catchy. I have never seen such a number of huge ocean liners gathered in one port, as it was in Madeira, anywhere else. It was impressive. The truth, as you know, is not only that.

The sad figure of Don Quixote reflecting on the meaning of life, presented to your attention, I also saw for the first time in Madeira. I did not yet know that this work was a so-called "pair" - before the complete set for it, it was still necessary to find a large Sancho Panza of the same scale, sitting on a separate stand with the same soft velvet surface and fixing the faithful look of an old friend and squire on his master, who had calmed down after past campaigns. I did not yet know that in the 1970s other Spanish manufactories released compositions very similar to this one, but in terms of the level of author's skill they were significantly inferior to it...

By the way, we never bought this work in Madeira, because I could not even imagine how to send such fragile works by mail. But later, all the same, they managed to catch up. Now that our collection contains dozens of different Don Quixotes I can compare them, telling you for hours about the features of different compositions and hoping that sooner or later you yourself will be able to do the same with your own eyes.